This, in a way, is understandable as many of us have more free time over the weekend and therefore we want to get the most out of a weekend run. We feel like it needs to be long and hard and, in some ways, make up for the lack of intense workouts during the week. Slow down, make the long run enjoyable and run at an effort that will allow you to recover in time to incorporate speed or tempo workouts during the week.
Easy means easy. Don’t overthink the term. What feels easy today might feel a lot different to another day, because fatigue, the type of terrain, life’s stresses, sleep, and many other factors will have an influence on how your body feels from one day to the next. Running your easy runs too fast won’t make you faster on race day. It will only result in slower recovery and prevent you from performing well during your speed workouts. Your Strava followers won’t abandon you for running your easy runs easy. Once they realize that you bring your A-game when it matters, they will soon follow your lead 😉
For some, there is a difference between easy runs and recovery runs.
Here’s an example: Professional athletes would often have a hard workout in the morning, followed by a very easy, recovery run in the afternoon. The purpose of the second run is not for gaining aerobic or anaerobic fitness, but purely acts as active recovery, to get the muscles loosened up and increase blood flow to the muscles. An Easy run-day would often follow the hard workout-day. The Easy run is generally faster than the recovery run, but still at a comfortable effort.
For most runners, two runs per day is not realistic, so therefore, Easy runs should be done at an intensity well below maximum effort, allowing the body to recover before the next workout. For the beginner runner, there is no need to be overly focused on the difference between easy, medium and hard effort at first. Running in itself is hard enough and building fitness takes time. The first goal should be to build a strong foundation and be able to run continuously for your goal distance. Workouts at different intensities can be added after building a strong running foundation and confidence to take your running to the next level.